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Message: [QUOTE="javadoc, post: 75297, member: 338"] I can't believe anyone wants him fired right now. So many angles to address here. When he was hired, the program needed a couple things: [B]Better coaches[/B]. Robinson apparently didn't have a great budget, and we got what we paid for. [B]Better players[/B]. Marrone said that when he took over we were the slowest and smallest class in the BE. Imagine our place in D-1A. [B]Better facilities[/B]. Well documented. [B]Rejuvenation[/B]. Dispirited fan base and loss of respect among HS coaches in the northeast. With Marrone's hire we spent [B]some[/B] money on coaches and facilities. It's a start. But Gross has said that we still aren't paying market value for our coaches, and while the Manley overhaul is fine for the moment, it isn't the long-term solution. We are on the cusp of achieving program stability and relative parity in D-1A, whereas we have been deep in a hole for almost a decade. The ACC move provides the one thing that everything else depends on: money. With that money, the most important thing to do is build facilities and pay more for coaches. I would say that the facilities are more important. We have to build the bling, as apparently the kiddies really care about it. It hurts recruiting, no matter who the coaches are, and it is a factor directly in our control. As for the coaches, maybe we'll be able to keep the coaches we really want to, and also afford an actual offensive coordinator. We are getting better players. We're not "there" yet but the athleticism is clearly improving, as is the team's size. You may disagree, but I contend that we are doing as well as [B]anyone[/B] could reasonably be expected to do right now, in Marrone's position. I do not believe that [B]any[/B] coach that might have taken the job would be doing significantly better right now - too many negatives to overcome. The fact that we aren't laughed out of the water is a huge accomplishment. You think there is a "closer" out there who could have landed a bunch of big name recruits by now if we'd only hired him instead of Marrone? I think you're crazy. That coach doesn't exist (remember, this is a coach who would have taken the job, and all it entails). So say that Marrone really is the bum that he is made out to be, and is a guy with an 8-4 ceiling to which we will stabilize. It is important to have a Syracuse guy like him steering the ship for the next few years, rebuilding recruiting relationships, improving the brand, improving the talent constantly, and being the face of SU football while we change conferences and dig ourselves out of that enormous hole from which we can only now even see the rim above us. In a couple years, when we're stuck on 7-5 or 8-4... [B]and[/B] we have facilities on par with our peers, [B]and[/B] we are competitive for assistant coaches on the 2nd-tier level (below the factory-level), [B]and[/B] our roster is mostly populated by guys playing at 3- or 4-star level, [B]and[/B] the Dome is packing 45K per game because the students get in free (and all students pay an annual $99 fee for it), then you can go look for the guy to get us to the next level. Or, fire Marrone now and go looking for someone dumb enough to want the job, when the school has no patience and isn't even paying freaking market value for the work, and the program is in the midst of turmoil and change. Good luck! BC is sagging, Penn State is going into the crapper, Rutgers and UConn are selling an even more diminished product than they already had. The northeast is ripe for the picking. You don't change horses now. [/QUOTE]

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